School Models

WASHINGTON, D.C — Inside a high school in the Columbia Heights neighborhood, down several hallways lined with student artwork and college acceptance letters, is a doorway marked “day care.”Image credit: Emily TateFlanked by two baby cribs, the door itself is covered with laminated guides promoting breastfeeding—one in English, another in Spanish—and behind it is a 3,360-square-foot, multi-room center filled with personalized cubbies, half a dozen cribs, baby bouncers, play sets, early learning tools and a pumping station.

Has anyone else noticed that some of the new schools being built, including much-celebrated “schools of tomorrow” resemble Google headquarters, as well as each other?Without ignoring that much of what differentiates one school from another takes place below the surface, the desire to make schools look like high-tech office spaces might be just the latest demonstration that education has historically followed and reflected—rather than led—technological, political and economic change.

“When I come to school I got hella things on my mind. Sometimes I don’t even sleep at night. I go hungry on purpose, cause I lose my appetite. I get to school and make myself angry. I was raised to live a lie. My older brother raised me, but he was doing drugs. I don’t know what to do. I don’t know how to talk it out. I hit myself. I may hit my best friend. It’s very confusing. Gang violence, drug violence, drug dealing. When my parents would fight, I wouldn’t eat. I started stealing and selling drugs. I felt none of them cared about me.

In some corners of education, personalization is no longer just a buzzword. It’s a bad word.There are many reasons, including a lack of clarity around definitions, a lack of efficacy—because of confusion around the term—and, at some schools, a lack of rigor.

Imagine yourself back in a classroom. You’re not taking English or history or pre-calculus; the sign on the door says “Obstacles.” You enter and on the board is your first assignment: create something—a drawing, a model of a house, a sketch of a new product, a sculpture. You do, and then as you step back, the teacher steps forward and smashes your creation. And tells you your next assignment is to pick up the pieces (including yourself) and make something new.

When Gil Gibori searches for an analogy to describe the model behind his new premium tutoring center, The House, he’s apt to touch on a few big names, including WeWork, the Apple Genius Bar and, perhaps most unusually, the premium grocer Whole Foods.

Although a wealth of research suggests that active learning increases student engagement and improves academic outcomes, many college campuses struggle to get faculty to shift away from traditional, sage-on-a-stage style teaching practices. But some institutions are gaining traction using a novel approach: leveraging the expertise of facilities and information technology staff to support the redesign of classroom learning experiences.

NEW ORLEANS — Photos of students in silver-blue caps and gowns line the walls of Elizabeth Ostberg’s office. There must be over a hundred of them, faces beaming and proud.Graduation is a momentous occasion for any student, but for those who come through the NET Charter High School, it carries extra meaning.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — On a tree-lined avenue, between shops, cafes and row houses about a half mile from Harvard University, sits a uniquely high-tech school in a narrow storefront. Kids don’t spend time in front of screens, though. In fact, they never even see them. Instead, the tech is embedded into the environment almost invisibly. Cameras record students, who range in age from two to six, as they move around the room, and sensors in their matching green slippers track their exact location and the objects they touch.